The Chinese situation of Intellectual Property has been improving over the past decades. That's why I spent a chapter on it in The Wall Behind China's Open Door. Yesterday the Economist reported on patent improvement in China, taking the example of Schneider Electric of France engaged in a lawsuit of the Chinese Chint Group: "... the tables turned on April 15th when the two companies settled an infringement case — with the French firm forking over $23m to Chint. The rich settlement against a foreign firm is a landmark. It serves as a reminder that Chinese companies are just as eager to defend patents as Western firms, and that China’s intellectual-property regime has been tightened in recent years."